178 Dr. Heifer's Fourth Report [No. 98. 



Vaticas, and Shoreas, are the most valuable. The Dipterocarece 

 though attaining an enormous size, furnishes an inferior wood. 



All these trees, when full grown, are from 70 to 120 feet in 

 height, rising with a straight trunk 40 or 60 feet high, and have, 

 before they throw out any branches, a circumference from 10 

 to 30 feet. 



Teak having been hitherto procurable, and prejudices being 

 entertained against other species of timber, nobody has as yet 

 endeavoured to turn the immense forests of the provinces into 

 practical use. 



So greatly is the timber neglected, that in all Tenasserim not 

 one saw mill is as yet established, and strange to say, planks for 

 house building are transported from Penang. To engage in tim- 

 ber with a prospect of success, would however require a consi- 

 derable outlay of capital. Either a timber trade should be kept 

 solely in view, or ship-building united with it. Ship-building 

 has started up in Maulmain, is increasing, and is the only branch 

 of enterprise in Tenasserim which occupies Europeans; it is 

 however yet in its infancy, and capable of great extension. 



If we except the teak, no other timber trade is carried on. 

 The daily increasing demand for timber in Europe, Bengal, 

 Madras, Mauritius, Cape of Good Hope, &c. however, will not 

 permit the forests of this country to remain long unused. A 

 great advantage towards rendering these forests useful, will 

 be found in the great number of rivers and rivulets whose 

 banks are covered with forest trees, and which will afford great 

 facilities of transport. 



Not only the inland parts, but numerous islands of the 

 archipelago of Mergui are covered close to the sea-beach with 

 forests, and frequently it will but be necessary to fell the tree, 

 so as to make it fall into the sea, or to drag it only a few paces 

 to the water's edge. 



The establishment of saw mills moved by water, will present 

 great difficulties ; the sudden rise during the monsoon is dan- 

 gerous to the strongest dikes, and it would be less profitable to 

 erect saw mills at a distance from the sea port. 



Saw mills propelled by steam at the mouths of the larger 

 rivers, seem to promise the best. The felled trees bound 



